Pipe brier and method of making

ABSTRACT

Brier wood as used in a smoking pipe is irradiated by gamma or X-ray radiation in various environments including standard temperatures and pressures or oxygen at high pressure or a high water vapor environment. The brier so treated when used in a smoking pipe produces a smoke temperature that is cooler than that from a similar brier pipe that is untreated, resulting in a pipe that reduces &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;break-in&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; period while delivering a &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;cooler smoke&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; with less bite to the user.

United States Patent Meadow, Jr.

PIPE BRIER AND METHOD OF MAKING 2,716,411 8/1955 Hale 131/121 X OTHER PUBLICATIONS Forest Products Journal, April 1965, pgs. 162-166.

Primary Examiner.loseph S. Reich 1 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Malin & Haley [57] ABSTRACT Brier wood as used in a smoking pipe is irra dia ted by gamma or X-ray radiation in various environments including standard temperatures and pressures or oxygen at high pressure or a high water vapor environment. The brier so treated when used in a smoking pipe produces a smoke temperature that is cooler than that from a similar brier pipe that is untreated, resulting in a pipe that reduces break-in period while delivering a cooler smoke" with less bite to the user.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures Pdacc'izy a W606i 51w! Pepe 30606 ()2 a (J/262127.661 a6 5andaPd ahzzaspfzerc'a pressure fem 001 we and [76] Inventor: Joseph J. Meadow, Jr., 1141 S.

Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, Fla. 33444 [22] Filed: Nov. 12, 1971 [21] App1.No.: 198,249

[52] 0.8. CI. 131/172, 250/106 R, 131/121 [51] Int. Cl. A24f 11/00 [58] Field of Search 131/172, 121; 250/106 R, 250/42 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3.005.096 12/1961 Chynoweth 250/42 2,263,567 1'1/1941 Brown 2,577,278 12/1951 Sellers 131/172 UX Jga 1V 2.

Immediate/lg lze Pepe flea/6 web/z Ganzma 01" zFAag Badz'ac'ozz {P0122 25x 10 5220.? 60 flax/0 4m BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to an improved brier composition used in a pipe for the smoking of tobacco, and the method of making the improved brier for the pipe.

Pipe smokers have long judged, somewhat subjectively, the quality of a smoking pipe by the lack or absence of bite or harshness that the smoke produces on the sense receptors in the smokers mouth. This bite is related to the temperature of the smoke and to the production or irritants from the wood at the tobacco/- wood interface when heat is generated by the burning tobacco. Therefore in the past, several efforts have been made to reduce the temperature of the smoke by conducting heat out of the pipe bowl and/or the pipe stem. An example of this would be the use of aluminum inserts to conduct heat away from the burning tobacco and an aluminum stem to conduct heat from the smoke as it passes from the pipe bowl to the smokers mouth.

Brier wood has been traditionally used in the construction of pipe bowls and stems because the brier has properties that produce a satisfactory smoke. However, in the past, there has always been a break-in time period required when using a brier wood pipe, a period during which the brier is conditioned by burning tobacco, altering the wood by charing, releasing irritants during the break-in period. Most pipe smokers find the break-in period as unpleasant and undesirable.

Applicant's invention provides for a cooler smoking pipe having improved bite and break-in characteristics. Tobacco burning by increasing heat conductivity of the pipe bowl and inhibiting or reducing irritants (which contribute to bite) that are produced when brier chars during the initial break-in period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A brier composition for an improved brier pipe and the method of producing the improved brier composition wherein brier or a brier pipe is irradiated with gamma rays or-X-rays having a dose range of 2.5 X rads to 5.0 X 10 rads, the effect being directly related to the intensity of the dose. Efiectiveness may also be accelerated by irradiating the brier or brier pipe as above in a high humidity environment or under high pressure oxygen above 100 p.s.i.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved brier for pipes.

It is another object of this invention to provide a smoking pipe having improved break-in characteristics.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a a method of improving pipe brier.

And still yet another object of this invention is to provide a new composition of matter.

In accordance with these and other objects which will be apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of applicants method of treating a brier pipe bowl as described in Examples I and II.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing applicants method of treating a brier pipe bowl as described in Example III.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of applicants method of treating a brier pipe bowl as described in Example IV.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Brier wood or preferrably a pipe bowl constructed from brier wood is subjected to gamma radiation from cobalt-6O or cesium-137 or X-rays irradiated over a dose range of 2.5 X 10" rads to 5.0 X 10 rads. Such radiation will traverse and alter the entire structure of the brier pipe bow]. In the partial oxidation of brier wood, vanillin is a normal product derived from oxidation of the lignin. From tests of irradiated brier bowl samples, conversion from lignin to vanillin was found to be as high a 0.5 percent of the lignin present. The tensile strength of the brier after radiation is decreased as a function of increased radiation dosage.

EXAMPLE I A brier wood pipe bowl is irradiated in a chamber at substantially standard atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity by gamma radiation from cesium- 137 or cobalt-60 from 2.5 X 10 rads to 5.0 X 10 rads. The pipe or pipe bowl is placed near the source of the radiation so that the entire structure is exposed to am diation flux over a time period sufficient to provide the necessary amount of radiation.

EXAMPLE II Same as Example I only the gamma radiation is replaced by X-ray radiation generated by any well-known method of the same intensity extremes.

EXAMPLE III A wood brier pipe bowl is irradiated as in Example I except the relative humidity is raised to nearly percent. The effect of increased relative humidity is to accelerate the reaction of the radiation with the brier. Increasing relative humidity may be accomplished by saturating the pipe with water prior to irradiation or by directly adding sufficient water vapor to the irradiating chamber.

EXAMPLE IV A wood brier pipe is irradiated as in Example I or II except that the chamber is filled with oxygen under pressure ranging from 100 p.s.i. to 2,000 p.s.i. The effect of the oxygen under pressure accelerates the radiation interaction with the brier.

EVALUATION Evaluation of the pipes prepared by irradiation under the above Examples I through IVwere carried out by determining the differences in smoke temperatures emerging from processed and unprocessed pipes. This test was made by filling several pipes with a given weight of identical tobacco blends and continuously burning thetobacco for five minutes under constant vacuum or draw of -0.5 p.s.i. and measuring the exit temperature of thesmoke at the end of the plastic mouth piece attached to the pipe bowl. With the treated pipes, the averageover l0 pipes showeda temperature decrease of 8.3 per cent when compared with l non-treated pipes of the same design and from the same brier lot, the range of temperature decrease being from 5 to l2 per cent.

Tensile strength alteration was measured by cutting each of pipe bowls into two sections along the longitudinal axis of the stem and subjecting one section from each pipe to 3.0 X 10 rads of gamma radiation from cobalt-60. The tensile strength of the irradiated sections were decreased by 18 through 23 per cent when compared to the non-irradiated control sections. Because the natural tensile strength of untreated brier is relatively large, this reduction of tensile strength does not noticeably affect the utility of the brier material as a pipe bowl in everyday usage. A subjective test was also conducted in which the smokers involved confirmed the above results by describing the irradiated pipes as smoking cooler and having less bite.

CONCLUSION With applicants method of treating brier, an improved brier for use in pipes is obtained to provide a cooler smoking, less biting pipe.

The instant invention has been described herein in what is considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment. it is recognized, however, that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention and that obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

1. In a brier tobacco pipe having a brier bowl, a stem, and a mouthpiece, the improvement comprising:

said brier bowl having an electro-magnetic energy irradiated portion, said portion irradiated with between 2.5 X 10 rads to 5.0 X 10 rads, said electromagnetic energy having a frequency range from 3.0 X 10 megacycles to 3.0 X 10 megacycles.

2. A pipe as in claim 1, wherein:

said bowl is irradiated in an oxygen pressure between 100 p.s.i. and 2,000 p.s.i.

3. A pipe as in claim 1, wherein:

said bowl is irradiated in an environment with a percent. humidity between and percent.

4. The method of improving a brier pipe for improving break-in smoking characteristics comprising the steps of:

a. irradiating the pipe with between 2.5 X 10 rads and 5.0 X 10" rads of electromagnetic energy having a frequency range from 3.0 X 10 megacycles to 3.0 X 10 megacycles.

5. The method as in claim 4, including the additional step of:

b. simultaneously pressurizing the pipe with oxygen gas from 100 p.s.i. to 2,000 p.s.i. 

1. In a brier tobacco pipe having a brier bowl, a stem, and a mouthpiece, the improvement comprising: said brier bowl having an electro-magnetic energy irradiated portion, said portion irradiated with between 2.5 X 103 rads to 5.0 X 107 rads, said electro-magnetic energy having a frequency range from 3.0 X 109 megacycles to 3.0 X 1014 megacycles.
 2. A pipe as in claim 1, wherein: said bowl is irradiated in an oxygen pressure between 100 p.s.i. and 2,000 p.s.i.
 3. A pipe as in claim 1, wherein: said bowl is irradiated in an environment with a percent. humidity between 90 and 100 percent.
 4. The method of improving a brier pipe for improving break-in smoking characteristics comprising the steps of: a. irradiating the pipe with between 2.5 X 103 rads and 5.0 X 107 rads of electromagnetic energy having a frequency range from 3.0 X 109 megacycles to 3.0 X 1014 megacycles.
 5. The method as in claim 4, including the additional step of: b. simultaneously pressurizing the pipe with oxygen gas from 100 p.s.i. to 2,000 p.s.i. 